Retention from ancient Indian scriptures: Evaluating VR-based storytelling against the traditional methods
Sakshi Chauhan, Gitanshu Choudhary, Arnav V. Bhavsar, Varun Dutt · 2024
Stories from ancient Indian scriptures may demonstrate the retention in real-life situations. In virtual reality (VR), synthetic environments may allow the presentation of stories. However, little research has been done to compare VR environments with traditional reading environments regarding their ability to cause retention. The current study aims to evaluate the effect of ancient Indian stories in VR on retention compared to traditional text reading. In a lab experiment, 75 healthy participants are divided equally and randomly into three between-subject conditions: VR, text, and control groups. The participants in VR watched an Indian story's 3rd person scenes in a VR headset, and the participants in the text group read the story's text. In the control group, moral as a keyword was provided. Results revealed that VR and text groups contributed similarly to retention. Also, the results suggest that VR led to better recalls for story narrative and text led to better recall of academia constructs. We highlight the implications of ancient Indian storytelling in VR for retention.